The Catholic Standard and Times

Business leaders and celebrities celebrate Catholic schools

By CHRISTIE L. CHICOINE
CS&T Staff Writer

Former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski was among a contingent of business leaders and celebrities who gathered recently in support for BLOCS — Business Leadership Organized for Catholics Schools — and he had particular praise for the outgoing chairman of the archdiocesan organization.

Jaworski, president of the Philadelphia Soul arena football team, commended the efforts of J. William Mills III, who is stepping down after spending three years as head of BLOCS.

“The guy at the top must call the plays,” said Jaworski, a Catholic who resides in the New Jersey Diocese of Camden. “He must execute the offense. And that’s what Bill Mills does.”

Mills, who is a member of Cathedral Parish and the president of PNC Bank in Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, said his work as chair of BLOCS has been a high point in his life.

“I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done,” Mills said to his fellow benefactors, who convened at the gala at the Marriott Hotel in Center City Philadelphia on April 12.

This year’s celebration marked the 25th anniversary for the organization, which has been just around the “BLOCS” for parents who want to educate their children in Catholic schools.

Auxiliary Bishop Joseph P. McFadden thanked the high-powered benefactors for their commitment to Catholic education on behalf of Cardinal Justin Rigali, who was in Rome preparing for the papal conclave.

“BLOCS is about the future — about taking our children that God has given to us and giving them the opportunity to fulfill their potential and, most importantly, to give them the direction to become the leaders of tomorrow,” said Bishop McFadden, who assists the Cardinal in overseeing the Archdiocese’s Office for Development, under which BLOCS operates.

Also attending the BLOCS gala were Auxiliary Bishops Robert P. Maginnis, Michael F. Burbidge and Joseph R. Cistone, and Retired Auxiliary Bishop Louis A. DeSimone.

BLOCS’ interim chairman, H.F. Gerry Lenfest, chairman of the Lenfest Foundations in West Conshohocken, and most recently a co-chair of BLOCS, also praised Mills’s work, and said his would be a tough act to follow.

Lenfest, who is Protestant, said supporting the region’s Catholic school children transcends any individual faith: “It’s something that we all have to be behind.”

Also remembered at the banquet was G. Fred DiBona Jr., a former BLOCS chairman who died of cancer in January, at the age of 53. DiBona, a Catholic, was president and chief executive officer of Independence Blue Cross.

The gala’s mistress of ceremonies was Pat Ciarrocchi, BLOCS’ co-chair and the noontime anchor for CBS 3 (KYW-TV) in Philadelphia. She is a member of St. Matthias Parish in Bala Cynwyd.

Rev. Mr. Alvin A. Clay, a permanent deacon at Immaculate Conception B.V.M. Parish in Jenkintown and the president and CEO of Pitcairn Financial Group in Jenkintown and Philadelphia, was master of ceremonies for the event.

In his address, Jaworski acknowledged the BLOCS benefactors for instilling confidence in the children they help.

“That’s what it’s all about — to give these young people the confidence to go out in the world … to be a football player, a dancer, a singer, a motivational speaker, a cardinal, a businessperson,”he said.

Gregory Pasquale Ciminera, BLOCS’ executive director and administrator, said he found the gala inspiring.

“BLOCS is undergoing its own renaissance, and becoming much more visible and aggressive in the business communities that make up our region,” said Ciminera, a member of St. Louis Parish in Yeadon.

Its annual celebration, he said, introduces business leaders “to the remarkable educational ‘products’ that we put out every day” — in educating the students enrolled in Catholic schools throughout the Archdiocese.

Since 1998, the BLOCS gala has raised more than $6 million.

The organization was established in 1980 to serve as the Archdiocese’s fund-raising arm for business communities in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties. It connects Catholic schools to corporate and foundation communities that wish to support Catholic education.

BLOCS works to gain support for more than 100,000 children in the region who desire a quality Catholic education in order to learn the life skills necessary to thrive in their professional and personal lives.

The organization distributes more than 90 percent of all funds raised annually, providing tuition assistance to children in Catholic schools regardless of their race, religion or nationality.

BLOCS is also a participant in the Pennsylvania Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program. The EITC program allows area businesses to pay their taxes through BLOCS, earning tax credits of up to 90 percent. BLOCS then turns those contributions into scholarships for students in Catholic schools in the Archdiocese.

In addition to making Catholiceducation available to those families that could not have otherwise afforded it, Ciminera said the EITC program also makes a substantial difference to families that have been struggling financially to send their children to Catholic schools.

A number of Catholic school students represented the Archdiocese’s elementary and secondary school students at the gala.

Addressing benefactors were Kristilyn Keenan, a fifth-grader at Sacred Heart of Jesus School, and Angela Cinque, a student at Our Lady of Confidence Day School, which is a separate school on the Cardinal Dougherty High School campus that serves students who are mentally challenged and developmentally delayed.

Nicholas Gabriele, a senior at Northeast Catholic High School for Boys, and Louise Donnelly, a senior at Little Flower Catholic High School for Girls, both said after the gala that they appreciate BLOCS’ benefactors for helping young people.

“It’s been an amazing night all around,” said Gabriele, Northeast Catholic’s senior class president. “There’s nothing better than a Catholic education. That’s been proven tonight, over and over again.”

Donnelly said her education is equipping her for a future that she hopes will enable her, in turn, to become a Catholic school teacher.

“It’s massive. It has controlled my entire future,” she said. “In college, I want to study elementary education so that I, too, can come back into the Catholic educational system and give back what I have been given.”

For more information, check out the Web site www.BLOCS.org or call Gregory Pasquale Ciminera at (215) 587-0590.

CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine can be reached at (215) 587-2468 or cchicoin@adphila.org